Amos 9:11-15/Ephesians 5:22-33/St John 2:1-11
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
This mystery [i.e. marriage] is profound, and I am saying it refers to Christ and the Church.
Mystery. In the Greek, musterion. In Latin, sacramentum. In English, sacrament.
So marriage is a “sacrament” after all. We have little “s” sacrament and big “S” Sacrament. Big “S” Sacraments are outward signs of God’s grace that deliver the forgiveness of sins to you here and now; present tense forgiveness for present tense sinners.
Baptism: “I baptize you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” And it is done! You are brought into the saving Name of the Holy Blessed Trinity, made a child of God, a co-heir with Christ, all your sins forgiven.
Lord’s Supper: “Take and eat, this is My Body which is given for you. Take and drink, this is My Blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of all your sins.” And it is so! Gift, given to you, delivering the forgiveness of sins. And where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.
Absolution: “In the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all your sins in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” And what Christ says, He does for you. The forgiveness from the pastor is as from Christ Himself, valid and certain in heaven.
These are all big “S” Sacraments. God’s Word of promise and forgiveness attached to external things/elements, that really and truly deliver to you Christ and His righteousness. Now there are other signs of God’s grace, too, that do not deliver the forgiveness of sins. Yet they are graciously given by God and serve to teach us about the Gospel and how to live in accordance with the peace freely given us in Christ Jesus.
Marriage is an example of such a sacrament, a sacred thing, a divine sign in the world instituted by God for our own temporal good. Our Lutheran Confessions state: “Marriage was not instituted in the New Testament, but in the beginning, immediately after the creation of the human race. Furthermore, it has God’s command. It has also promises, not truly having to do with the New Testament, but rather having to do with bodily life.” (Ap XIII 14). This is the benefit of marriage for this life: Marriage is a divine sign of Christ’s sacrificial love for His bride, the Church, but also of the Church’s submission to her Lord Jesus Christ.
After the Fall, of course, it is difficult to grasp what joyful submission and gracious lordship are supposed to look like. Particularly because we live disconnected from the needs of others; we fail to recognize our neighbors needs, but see only our own selfish desires. In the world submission and lordship are synonyms for oppressive language. And our old Adam, that consummate individualist, chafes and rebels at such exhortation, Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her. Self-sacrifice, service, humility - these are foreign to our flesh.
But Christ shows us a more perfect way. He attends a wedding in Cana of Galilee. There He manifests His glory by transforming 120-180 gallons of water into the choicest wine. He blesses this and all true and proper marriages with His presence and Word and grace. As it is written, A threefold cord is not quickly broken (Ecc 4:12).
And all that this text and St Paul have to say to us about marriage are incredibly important - perhaps especially for our day, when God’s gracious institution, His sacred sign, of marriage are under attack, both from outside and inside the Church. How many are trying to redefine marriage? How many are trying to tear it down as a vestige of by-gone days? An arrangement of patriarchal domination? The battle wages. We cannot sit on the sidelines, biting our tongues. Even in our own State House this past week heard arguments from both sides considering a proposal for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage in Indiana. The battle over marriage may very well redefine fellowship in the Church.
Yet we ought not get bogged down. While these issues are of supreme importance, our text goes deeper. Of the evangelists, St John is the theologian. His Gospel lacks institution narratives for Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, but it runs deep with sacramental imagery and significance. For Christ’s epiphany at Cana is more than a miracle turning water into wine - as spectacular as that is! St John writes, This, the first of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested His glory. And His disciples believed in Him. The wedding at Cana points forward to a greater sign - the marriage that occurred at Calvary.
St John bookends his Gospel with this great mystery, this mega sacramentum, this profound sacrament - marriage, which is a picture of Christ and His Bride the Church. For consider the theological significance of John’s writing: here, in chapter two - It is a wedding, Mary is there - though in John’s Gospel she is never referred to by name, but simply as the Mother of Jesus or the Mother of our Lord. Jesus is present. His mother presents Him with a problem: they have no wine. She does not suggest a manner or method to fix the problem. She simply waits from the Lord great and abundant blessing, according to His own time and purpose. Such is the nature of prayer.
And then that enigmatic saying of Christ, Woman, what does this have to do with you and Me? My hour is not yet come. Some may consider our Lord’s words a rebuff or dishonorable to His mother. They are not. Mary knows what she is asking. Her Son knows. And His hour has not yet come.
His hour - that phrase in St John that is pregnant with meaning. To the Samaritan woman: The hour is coming when neither at this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father (4:21). Again, The hour is coming when the true worshipper will worship the Father in spirit and truth (4;23); To the Jews who rejected Him: Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live (5:25); So they were seeking to arrest Him, but no one laid a hand on Him because His hour had not yet come (7:30); To His disciples, And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (12:23); In His high priestly prayer, Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You (17:1); and finally, at the Cross, When Jesus saw His mother and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold your son!” Then He said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home (19:26-27).
There it is. The hour of His glorify is the hour of His crucifixion. And it is a wedding! Mary is there. Jesus too. He is leaving His Father, forsaken by Him. He is leaving His mother, and He now cleaves fast to His Bride. But as with Adam, so with Christ, the Second Adam, a suitable helper is not found. Rather He is put into the deep sleep of death, and from His side a Bride is fashioned for Him. Spilling out from His own body: water, to fill the baptismal font, the means by which the Church is born. And blood, filling the cup, the means by which the Bride is nourished and sustained. And you, dear Bride, you are brought to the Man, in holiness and without spot of blemish, and you are called Christian, for you were taken out of Christ. Indeed what God has joined together, let man not rend asunder.
It is by and in the blood of Christ that you are covered with His righteousness, that He sanctifies you, having cleansed you with the washing of water and the Word. And where do you come into contact with this Blood of your heavenly Bridegroom, but in and under the wine of the Lord’s Supper, the foretaste of the wedding feast of the Lamb in His kingdom which shall have no end.
Indeed St John picks up this theme again in Revelation where he describes the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven, dressed as a Bride adorned for her Husband. And the saints are given to recline at Table with the Lamb, feasting with and on Him who is the Marriage Banquet.
And this is the great mystery of the faith, the profound sacrament of the relationship of Christ to His Church, as St Paul previous wrote to the Ephesians, When you read this you can perceive my insight into the mystery [musterion/sacramentum/sacrament] that is Christ (Eph 3:4); the mystery of Christ and the Church. No other relationship measures up. Not father to children, not pastor to people, not friend to friend, but husband to wife.
Incidentally, this is why the marriage debate is so important. It is no only marriage that is at stake, but the proper and fundamental understanding of the Gospel, the relationship of Christ, the Son of Man, to His Bride, the Church. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. Man and woman. It can be no other way, for this is how God instituted it, Christ blessed it, and the Church receives it.
Thus are you given to work and fight and pray for the retention of the small “s” sacraments of our Lord: principle among them, marriage. But also prayer, almsgiving, even troubles themselves. For these are all divine signs of God’s grace and promises. By and through them He imposes His Cross; and you would rather it His Cross than a cross of your own choosing. For it is far better to suffer for doing good than doing evil.
And here we have the words of St Mary, Mother of our Lord, who represents for us the Church: Do whatever He tells you. Do not be insulted by His reply, but submit in faith and love to Christ who is your Head. For He, in love, submitted Himself into death for you. Through His Cross He redefines what lordship and submission are. Through Christ we learn that lordship is exercising one’s power not to lord it over others, but by sacrificing for them. And submission is exercising one’s freedom, not for oneself as freedom is misunderstood today. Rather, submission is the exercise of freedom in service to another. Both are acts of unselfish love where you die to self in order to make room for the neighbor.
And this is seen in no better place than marriage. Marriage is where we learn from the Holy Spirit what true lordship and submission are. In marriage we learn what is means to bear the cross of lordship and submission; that joyous burden of self-sacrifice and humility. For those who have been given a spouse, your marriage is a picture of that blessed mystery of Christ and His Church. If you do not realize this, you cannot comprehend what marriage is, nor will you understand anything else. It is for the sake of Christ and His Bride, the Church, that God the Lord created all things and instituted the blessed estate of holy matrimony.
If you are single, whether unmarried or a widow; if our Lord, in His wisdom has called your spouse home to Himself, do not be dismayed, for His Word and gracious promises are for you as well. Learn to find your wholeness and complement in He who made you for Himself. In your particular vocation you are able to devote yourself evermore to the things of Christ; more so than the married.
But whether married or single, our Lord’s mercy provides. For He who provided the choicest wine last, has saved up for you great and abundant gifts. Recall that there were six stone jars at the wedding, used for the Jewish rite of purification under the law. Six, for the days of creation, who even with you cries out for redemption. Six, one less than seven, that number of completeness. For though all things are finished, not all is yet complete. We await the consummation.
And Christ, our heavenly Bridegroom takes those jars of the law and uses them to pour out His blessing of the Gospel. He transforms the rites of purification and cleansing to deliver His mercy and goodness. And it is the groom who receives the honor and glory of Christ’s hidden miracle, just as you receive the righteousness and life of His hidden manifestation at the Cross, even as it comes to you here, as you just sang. For that old TLH hymn has a verse indeed is meant to refer to the bride and groom, yet how fitting for you, the Church, who have been wedded to Christ, your heavenly Bridegroom in Holy Baptism, now come to receive all He gives in this Feast. “On those who now before Thee kneel, O Lord, Thy blessing pour, that each may wake the other’s zeal to love Thee more and more. Oh, grant them here in peace to live, in purity and love,and, this world leaving, to receive a crown of life above.”
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
This mystery [i.e. marriage] is profound, and I am saying it refers to Christ and the Church.
Mystery. In the Greek, musterion. In Latin, sacramentum. In English, sacrament.
So marriage is a “sacrament” after all. We have little “s” sacrament and big “S” Sacrament. Big “S” Sacraments are outward signs of God’s grace that deliver the forgiveness of sins to you here and now; present tense forgiveness for present tense sinners.
Baptism: “I baptize you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” And it is done! You are brought into the saving Name of the Holy Blessed Trinity, made a child of God, a co-heir with Christ, all your sins forgiven.
Lord’s Supper: “Take and eat, this is My Body which is given for you. Take and drink, this is My Blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of all your sins.” And it is so! Gift, given to you, delivering the forgiveness of sins. And where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.
Absolution: “In the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all your sins in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” And what Christ says, He does for you. The forgiveness from the pastor is as from Christ Himself, valid and certain in heaven.
These are all big “S” Sacraments. God’s Word of promise and forgiveness attached to external things/elements, that really and truly deliver to you Christ and His righteousness. Now there are other signs of God’s grace, too, that do not deliver the forgiveness of sins. Yet they are graciously given by God and serve to teach us about the Gospel and how to live in accordance with the peace freely given us in Christ Jesus.
Marriage is an example of such a sacrament, a sacred thing, a divine sign in the world instituted by God for our own temporal good. Our Lutheran Confessions state: “Marriage was not instituted in the New Testament, but in the beginning, immediately after the creation of the human race. Furthermore, it has God’s command. It has also promises, not truly having to do with the New Testament, but rather having to do with bodily life.” (Ap XIII 14). This is the benefit of marriage for this life: Marriage is a divine sign of Christ’s sacrificial love for His bride, the Church, but also of the Church’s submission to her Lord Jesus Christ.
After the Fall, of course, it is difficult to grasp what joyful submission and gracious lordship are supposed to look like. Particularly because we live disconnected from the needs of others; we fail to recognize our neighbors needs, but see only our own selfish desires. In the world submission and lordship are synonyms for oppressive language. And our old Adam, that consummate individualist, chafes and rebels at such exhortation, Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her. Self-sacrifice, service, humility - these are foreign to our flesh.
But Christ shows us a more perfect way. He attends a wedding in Cana of Galilee. There He manifests His glory by transforming 120-180 gallons of water into the choicest wine. He blesses this and all true and proper marriages with His presence and Word and grace. As it is written, A threefold cord is not quickly broken (Ecc 4:12).
And all that this text and St Paul have to say to us about marriage are incredibly important - perhaps especially for our day, when God’s gracious institution, His sacred sign, of marriage are under attack, both from outside and inside the Church. How many are trying to redefine marriage? How many are trying to tear it down as a vestige of by-gone days? An arrangement of patriarchal domination? The battle wages. We cannot sit on the sidelines, biting our tongues. Even in our own State House this past week heard arguments from both sides considering a proposal for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage in Indiana. The battle over marriage may very well redefine fellowship in the Church.
Yet we ought not get bogged down. While these issues are of supreme importance, our text goes deeper. Of the evangelists, St John is the theologian. His Gospel lacks institution narratives for Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, but it runs deep with sacramental imagery and significance. For Christ’s epiphany at Cana is more than a miracle turning water into wine - as spectacular as that is! St John writes, This, the first of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested His glory. And His disciples believed in Him. The wedding at Cana points forward to a greater sign - the marriage that occurred at Calvary.
St John bookends his Gospel with this great mystery, this mega sacramentum, this profound sacrament - marriage, which is a picture of Christ and His Bride the Church. For consider the theological significance of John’s writing: here, in chapter two - It is a wedding, Mary is there - though in John’s Gospel she is never referred to by name, but simply as the Mother of Jesus or the Mother of our Lord. Jesus is present. His mother presents Him with a problem: they have no wine. She does not suggest a manner or method to fix the problem. She simply waits from the Lord great and abundant blessing, according to His own time and purpose. Such is the nature of prayer.
And then that enigmatic saying of Christ, Woman, what does this have to do with you and Me? My hour is not yet come. Some may consider our Lord’s words a rebuff or dishonorable to His mother. They are not. Mary knows what she is asking. Her Son knows. And His hour has not yet come.
His hour - that phrase in St John that is pregnant with meaning. To the Samaritan woman: The hour is coming when neither at this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father (4:21). Again, The hour is coming when the true worshipper will worship the Father in spirit and truth (4;23); To the Jews who rejected Him: Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live (5:25); So they were seeking to arrest Him, but no one laid a hand on Him because His hour had not yet come (7:30); To His disciples, And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (12:23); In His high priestly prayer, Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You (17:1); and finally, at the Cross, When Jesus saw His mother and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold your son!” Then He said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home (19:26-27).
There it is. The hour of His glorify is the hour of His crucifixion. And it is a wedding! Mary is there. Jesus too. He is leaving His Father, forsaken by Him. He is leaving His mother, and He now cleaves fast to His Bride. But as with Adam, so with Christ, the Second Adam, a suitable helper is not found. Rather He is put into the deep sleep of death, and from His side a Bride is fashioned for Him. Spilling out from His own body: water, to fill the baptismal font, the means by which the Church is born. And blood, filling the cup, the means by which the Bride is nourished and sustained. And you, dear Bride, you are brought to the Man, in holiness and without spot of blemish, and you are called Christian, for you were taken out of Christ. Indeed what God has joined together, let man not rend asunder.
It is by and in the blood of Christ that you are covered with His righteousness, that He sanctifies you, having cleansed you with the washing of water and the Word. And where do you come into contact with this Blood of your heavenly Bridegroom, but in and under the wine of the Lord’s Supper, the foretaste of the wedding feast of the Lamb in His kingdom which shall have no end.
Indeed St John picks up this theme again in Revelation where he describes the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven, dressed as a Bride adorned for her Husband. And the saints are given to recline at Table with the Lamb, feasting with and on Him who is the Marriage Banquet.
And this is the great mystery of the faith, the profound sacrament of the relationship of Christ to His Church, as St Paul previous wrote to the Ephesians, When you read this you can perceive my insight into the mystery [musterion/sacramentum/sacrament] that is Christ (Eph 3:4); the mystery of Christ and the Church. No other relationship measures up. Not father to children, not pastor to people, not friend to friend, but husband to wife.
Incidentally, this is why the marriage debate is so important. It is no only marriage that is at stake, but the proper and fundamental understanding of the Gospel, the relationship of Christ, the Son of Man, to His Bride, the Church. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. Man and woman. It can be no other way, for this is how God instituted it, Christ blessed it, and the Church receives it.
Thus are you given to work and fight and pray for the retention of the small “s” sacraments of our Lord: principle among them, marriage. But also prayer, almsgiving, even troubles themselves. For these are all divine signs of God’s grace and promises. By and through them He imposes His Cross; and you would rather it His Cross than a cross of your own choosing. For it is far better to suffer for doing good than doing evil.
And here we have the words of St Mary, Mother of our Lord, who represents for us the Church: Do whatever He tells you. Do not be insulted by His reply, but submit in faith and love to Christ who is your Head. For He, in love, submitted Himself into death for you. Through His Cross He redefines what lordship and submission are. Through Christ we learn that lordship is exercising one’s power not to lord it over others, but by sacrificing for them. And submission is exercising one’s freedom, not for oneself as freedom is misunderstood today. Rather, submission is the exercise of freedom in service to another. Both are acts of unselfish love where you die to self in order to make room for the neighbor.
And this is seen in no better place than marriage. Marriage is where we learn from the Holy Spirit what true lordship and submission are. In marriage we learn what is means to bear the cross of lordship and submission; that joyous burden of self-sacrifice and humility. For those who have been given a spouse, your marriage is a picture of that blessed mystery of Christ and His Church. If you do not realize this, you cannot comprehend what marriage is, nor will you understand anything else. It is for the sake of Christ and His Bride, the Church, that God the Lord created all things and instituted the blessed estate of holy matrimony.
If you are single, whether unmarried or a widow; if our Lord, in His wisdom has called your spouse home to Himself, do not be dismayed, for His Word and gracious promises are for you as well. Learn to find your wholeness and complement in He who made you for Himself. In your particular vocation you are able to devote yourself evermore to the things of Christ; more so than the married.
But whether married or single, our Lord’s mercy provides. For He who provided the choicest wine last, has saved up for you great and abundant gifts. Recall that there were six stone jars at the wedding, used for the Jewish rite of purification under the law. Six, for the days of creation, who even with you cries out for redemption. Six, one less than seven, that number of completeness. For though all things are finished, not all is yet complete. We await the consummation.
And Christ, our heavenly Bridegroom takes those jars of the law and uses them to pour out His blessing of the Gospel. He transforms the rites of purification and cleansing to deliver His mercy and goodness. And it is the groom who receives the honor and glory of Christ’s hidden miracle, just as you receive the righteousness and life of His hidden manifestation at the Cross, even as it comes to you here, as you just sang. For that old TLH hymn has a verse indeed is meant to refer to the bride and groom, yet how fitting for you, the Church, who have been wedded to Christ, your heavenly Bridegroom in Holy Baptism, now come to receive all He gives in this Feast. “On those who now before Thee kneel, O Lord, Thy blessing pour, that each may wake the other’s zeal to love Thee more and more. Oh, grant them here in peace to live, in purity and love,and, this world leaving, to receive a crown of life above.”
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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